Thanks Reggio...this is a great article! I would love to share it with my daycare parents as well...so they will understand why their child comes come with dirty knees and the occassional scrape or bruise I met a parent at the park the other day who really epitomized the extremes our soceity has gone to in "safety consciousness". She has a 4 year old starting JK this September and she was complaining about the brand new beautiful play structure being built on the school's grounds...funded by parent fund-raising by they way...she thinks it is way too dangerous and in fact she thinks that schools should not have play structures at all!!! She even suggested that the teachers, since they only work 6 hour days, should not need breaks and should instead provide structured activities to keep the kids safe at recess and lunch Her reasoning...parents don't get breaks, why should teachers?!!!! I told her that first of all, teachers do a whole lot of prep work after the kids have gone home, and second of all, if she had 20-30 small children at home I am pretty sure she would need a break (she only has one child)...and third...doesn't she get breaks at her job? ANyway, I have digressed a bit here as I hate it when anyone talks teachers down. The point was that she doesn't htink a play structure is safe for a 4 year old...and it will likely be her child who does end up getting hurt as he has had no practice climbing etc. It's sad...kids do need to take some risks (not lethal ones of course) and get dirty and explore. My ownkids do tons of this...but it is a bit more difficult with other people's kids I find because I worry more.